Spokane's Real Estate Market

A couple months ago an article was in our local paper, the Spokesman Review, about a slump in our Real Estate Market. They focused around a couple who was trying to sell a home they had just bought less than a year before, new construction. The whole flaw to this article should not have been on how this reflected a slump in the housing market, but what crazy things people do when buying or selling Real Estate and then want to blame something or someone else for their dilemmas.

Before I go on to show the errors of their ways, let me first note that 'yes', we do have a slowdown in our market, and there are several instances out there to show or prove that, but for the most part, survey after survey over the past year has indicated that Spokane, Washington is one of the strongest, stable and most predictable Real Estate markets in the country.

Back to the homeowners who feel they are caught in a slump, let's discuss what they did wrong.

First, they bought a home without selling their previous home. This gets even better.

2nd, the home they needed to sell was originally listed just under $1,000,000, in a market where less than one home in that price range sells each month, with a 6 plus year supply of such homes. A home they had just built in 2001, recently assessed for 2/3 of what they were asking for it.

3rd, to top that off, they list as being 'shown by appointment with agent', they do not allow a lockbox, and to be even more ironic, they say very motivated sellers, bring all offers. A motivated seller does not insist on appointment with listing agent only, and not allow a lockbox, this is the epitome of not being motivated at all.

4th, over the past 14 plus months as they have slowly reduced the sales price down to $675,000 (which is probably about what it is worth) from the original $998,000, they had an epiphany last week, they raised the price. In the slowest real estate market we have had in my lifetime, going into the slowest month of the season, a few days before Thanksgiving as snow has just started to fall on the ground, they raise the price from $675,000 to $750,000! And, still have the same old obstacles:

VERY MOTIVATED SELLERS, BRING ALL OFFERS!! PLS CALL LISTING AGENT TO MAKE APPT - NO LBX. (taken from the listing)

When I see the term "motivated sellers", I usually explain to my clients that more often than not, that means motivated to get the most amount of money possible for the home, not motivated to get the home sold under any reasonable conditions. Sometimes it just reflects a motivated Realtor because he/she is about to lose the listing to another Realtor.

The scenario these folks are in is not a reflection of the market, this is a reflection of a seller either being poorly advised or making poor decisions....or both.

Now you are wondering about the home they were buying? The one they bought last October? Well that story is interesting too. They paid $330 for it in October of 2007, new construction as well. Buying a brand new home is like driving a car off the lot, it is worth less the day you take possession (maybe one or two out of every 10 years you get lucky and this is not the case, but let's not rely on luck). Our market was in it's first decline in almost 20 years as they bought, so they decide to list the new home as well in the coming spring, 2008. Paid $330, so someone might suggest $330 to try and get lucky, or how about $320 to recognize the market decline and competing with empty new homes all around you? Nope, $360.

This is when they went to the newspaper. While they have done everything possible to keep their original home from selling (appointment only, no lockbox, unrealistic price, raising the price as the market declines), they took some pro-active measures to get this home sold. They agree to reduce the price $1000 a day until it sells. This was August of 2008. It has been a little over 100 days since that pledge and they have shown only a little reluctance to keep up the promise, overall they are doing a pretty good job, they have come down $75,000. They are probably priced to sell now, but any buyer might be waiting for just another week or two to save another $5000 to $10,000, especially this time of year in this market and in this economy. I do concede this was a great strategy by them or their Realtor in contrast with the home they originally wanted to sell, but the only drawback was that they started at least $30,000 over any likely sales price so the first month was a waste of time and effort, and then when they finally get to a fair/realistic price, or today maybe even a great price, they are at the slowest time of the year in a slow market in a bad economy.

Bottom line is this real estate market has enough obstacles for home sellers to deal with, let's focus on the real problems that this economy provides, not those brought about by people making poor decisions and more poor decisions to compound their problems. If you have a home to sell in the Spokane market, and have an experienced Realtor to counsel you, and you listen to them, your home will sell, maybe not in 30 days, and maybe not even 90, but we still have homes selling every day and yours may as well be one of them.

If you are buying a home in the Spokane area over the next 90 days between $100,000 and $400,000 and have excellent credit, you need a Realtor on your side. Call Mike Crowley at 509-951-9710 or e-mail to mike@spokanehomebuyers.com.

Spokane Home Buyers, Buyers Only since 1997!